Kyoukai no Kanata
Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a girl with superpowers.
The trailer hinted at gorgeous graphics, and this show delivered: the animation here is really good and the fights look wonderful. It however failed to show another aspect of this series: the comedy. Oh boy, it’s mostly bad. A lot of this episode was a ditzy stupid girl bantering with a snarky mellow male lead. Gee, Kyoani, I wonder where you got the inspiration for that one! These characters are like near carbon copies of the stereotypes that they usually go for in their series, only this time it’s heavily inspired by Bakemonogatari. And unlike Hyouka, the chemistry isn’t really good here. On the other hand, there were lots of hints to a more serious future (but then again, Tamako Market did that too…). So yeah, the question is whether the animation, plot and the rest of the characters will be good enough to excuse this banter.
OP: The song is nothing special. The animation is really good though.
ED: Great visual direction for an ED here. Lovely use of colors and shots.
Potential: 75%
Super Seisyun Brothers
Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of twins and best friends who hang out together.
You know what? For a 4-minute episoded series, this wasn’t half bad. Sure, it wasn’t anything amazing, but unlike Miss Monochrome, it actually had characters worth watching. It’s basically about these four characters who all look similar, yet are different when you get to know them. This series seems to be about the differences between these four. And you know, that’s not a bad premise to base your series on if you’re just doing a short one. Sure, they talk in stereotypes and nothing really stood out, but considering the usual quality of these kinds of series:, it’s actually watchable.
ED: Simple, but it works: my eyes aren’t figuratively bleeding for once.
Potential: 40%
Miss Monochrome
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is an android who wants to be an idol.
Yeah, moving on. This is another one of those crappy 5-minute series that serve no point. There’s no context, just about this girl with a tragic past who wants to be an idol. Way to cash in on things, eh? It tries to make jokes, but the delivery of them is some of the worst I’ve seen in quite a while.
Potential: 0%
Ima give Kyokai no Kanata another 2 eps to crank up the dial on the character front because supposedly the real meat of this series is the characters and their struggles through life; I hope it meets my expectations. I think its too early to judge, especially since Hyouka didnt seem like it would be anything special (apart from its animation) until a few eps in.
love the production values on Kyokai no Kanata but oh boy was that female lead annoying for me to watch. i personally just cant stand those cute character types, but i understand the business decision to have those archetypes in anime. they simply sell. anime fans generally love those types. regardless i’ll keep watching for a bit, i really respect the talent KyoAni has.
Just watched kyokai no kanata. Been following this blog for a good, what, 3 years now and haven’t ever felt the need to comment on anything.
First 5 episodes were rather slow, nothing much happening. Gorgeous animation and although the mc’s were a tad annoying, they grew on me.
After that it started getting serious, and boy did it do well. While they left most of the character development out for all but the pink haired mc, I don’t think I could’ve cared less with all of the action-packed episodes, with the animation just carrying the hell out of every episode. The story developed quite well too, with things that happened but weren’t explained to death like most shows do nowadays.
I am a bit of a sucker for romance like this show had, and I could understand the first death fallacy and why they did it. Even got a bit teary when ep10 happened. Ep11 and 12 had some of the best animation I’ve ever seen, not THE best (OPM reserves that for a long time) but wow did it do well. All the story made sense, although the whole older sister part (setting up for the movie I presume) could’ve been done without. And then we get to the end.
I’ve never been more pissed off at an anime in my life. No explanation, no justification, they just decided “hey, lets bring her back to life” even though it ended perfectly as it was. At least after story had build up and a pre-emptive justification, this just did it out of the blue. This series, in the last minute, went from a 88/100 to a 68/100. Goddammit.